30 missing after Azerbaijan oil rig fire
At least 30 people are missing after an explosion and a fire on an Azerbaijani oil platform in the Caspian Sea.
Rescue operations continued on Sunday at the platform in the Guneshli oil field after it caught fire during high winds on Friday, state oil company SOCAR said. So far one person has been confirmed dead.
“One body was found and a search-and-rescue operation for 30 missing workers is under way,” it said in a statement, adding that 32 workers had been safely evacuated.
SOCAR said a severe storm was hampering the rescue mission, while hopes of finding survivors seemed to fade.
SOCAR’s Vice President Khoshbakht Yusifzade told media on Sunday that the explosion on the rig was not connected to the oil rig itself but was instead caused by waves hitting the platform.
“One of the pipelines bringing gas from the wells to the platform could not stand the force of the waves. As a result there was an explosion. The explosion was not related to the platform and wells. As gas was flowing there, it was the same case as with similar platforms,” he said.
The fire started after the storm damaged a natural gas pipeline, causing the explosion and the platform’s partial collapse. Oil production on 28 oil wells linked to the facility was suspended and all oil and gas pipelines that link the platform with land were blocked as a safety precaution, SOCAR added in the statement, which was issued jointly with the emergency ministry and the country's chief prosecutor.
“The fire in the gas pipeline has not been completely extinguished and it has not been ruled out that it could spread to oil and gas wells near the platform,” it said, however.
About 60 percent of SOCAR’s oil production passes through the damaged platform.
In a separate incident, SOCAR said on Friday that three workers had gone missing at another of its offshore oil platforms following the day's storm.
Last year, fourteen of SOCAR’s workers were killed in similar accidents.
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